Transparent Transfer of Home Environment Info
markhu...@my-deja.com
I am trying to evaluate a Citrix WinFrame implementation that my
employer has set up for non-mandatory access to the corporate network.
My initial testing and subsequent follow-up calls to Citrix indicates
that a substantial amount of environmental information is being
transferred from my home PC to the Citrix server. My understanding is
that information like comm port mapping, user manager, and
connection configuration is being transparently (and involuntarily)
transmitted to the Citrix server for use by the server as it sees fit.
My questions all revolve around security and privacy, and I'd
appreciate answers from anyone on the subject who has specific
information and experience.
1. Is environmental information such as my local (home) desktop
username sent to the server?
2. Does the server know what disk drives I have available and mapped
on the home computer?
3. Is the server aware of what printers I have available on the home
computer?
If any of these answers are "Yes," then I am wondering if there is
a way to disable these functions on the CLIENT side (home) to ensure
that all information sent to the server is known to the user. In
general, people are using the ICA Client Browser Plug-in for access,
so this question relates to configuration of the ICA Client Browser
Plug-in.
I suspect that some or all of these features can be disabled at the
server, at some cost to functionality no doubt, but my goal is to
determine how to make it safe and keep my home environment separate
from my work environment. Also, if some or all of these features are
disabled at the server, what functionality would be lost?
Thanks in advance for your time and consideration in responding.
Mark Hunnibell
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Andy Burns
>1. Is environmental information such as my local (home) desktop
>username sent to the server?
no, infact some users wish it could be so you don't have to re-login to
the server
>2. Does the server know what disk drives I have available and mapped
>on the home computer?
depending on how it's configured it may map server drives back to your
local drives (must admit I'm not sure if the default mapping will re-map
already mapped network devises as I've set it up with explicit mapping,
not default)
>3. Is the server aware of what printers I have available on the home
>computer?
again it can be set to map server printers back to your local printers,
which might in tern already be redirected to other network printers
>If any of these answers are "Yes," then I am wondering if there is
>a way to disable these functions on the CLIENT side (home) to ensure
>that all information sent to the server is known to the user. In
>general, people are using the ICA Client Browser Plug-in for access,
>so this question relates to configuration of the ICA Client Browser
>Plug-in.
Ah, now you say that !
the local drive and printer mapping above doesn't apply then ...
>I suspect that some or all of these features can be disabled at the
>server, at some cost to functionality no doubt, but my goal is to
>determine how to make it safe and keep my home environment separate
>from my work environment. Also, if some or all of these features are
>disabled at the server, what functionality would be lost?
what are you doing at home that you don't want "them" to see ;-)
--
Andy At Burns Dot Net